Well I start every character on expert difficulty. When i reached lv 49 on my main character I jumped to master. M main character is "Gray Dark-Soul" Lv 59 magus. My Destruction, Conjuration, Alteration are lv 100. My Illusion is 95. My Restoration is 82. My Enchanting is 70. My experience on Master is rather enjoyable especially being that I know Master level spells. Here is a tactic I exploit constantly. I encounter a lot of melee enemies, thus forth I activate "Invisibility" an illusion spell, get amongst the crowd and use Mass Paralysis. I follow up with either Lightning storm or Blizzard (Lightning more than Blizzard; for some reason Blizzard kills me). When the remaining enemies stand I will use either chain lightning or paralyze and lightning bolt. Another Exploit is to dual cast lightning spells. At some point along the tree destruction magic staggers and it's a fact that lightning spells connect instantly when cast. This is truly a win-win situation when I hit an enemy with dual casted lightning bolt he drops to his knees. During the action I strike him again. When he rises to his feet I strike him once more invoking another stagger. This is easy for me to do being that my magicka is 910, my only real issue being archers because I only have 140 health. This is less of a problem being that I've mastered 3 skills so far ; Master Alteration giving you Dragonhide. Paralyze+Frenzy+Conjure Dremora Lord allows you to watch your foes tear each other apart. As they die off you can use Revenant or the next level necromancy spell to raise one of the dead higher levels t fight for you in place of your dremora. Illusion controls your enemies, Master Alteration boosts your defenses, Master conjuration permanently summons a Thrall to your side, and master Destruction gives you the edge in a battle. Look into a Breton magus they have magical resistance and make for rather strong Magus (Just saying from personal experience)

Master difficulty is only really hard on low levels, where even random fodder like Bandit Chiefs and Dire Wolves will often kill you in a single attack, especially if you use Mage Armour or Light Armour.

In my experience, unless you try to be a jack of all trades, you'll quickly reach a level where nothing poses much of a challenge, even on master difficulty, except for occasional stuff like vampire lairs full of level 60-65 vamps, etc.

Master difficulty is only really hard on low levels, where even random fodder like Bandit Chiefs and Dire Wolves will often kill you in a single attack, especially if you use Mage Armour or Light Armour.

In my experience, unless you try to be a jack of all trades, you'll quickly reach a level where nothing poses much of a challenge, even on master difficulty, except for occasional stuff like vampire lairs full of level 60-65 vamps, etc.

What are Dire Wolves? I've never heard of these before.

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I have only ever played on Master difficulty since the game came out. I'm using an Argonian Vampire Battlemage type, and use whatever possible edge I can get. Mainly I'm using two one handed weapons, enchanted of course. I also use Heavy armour along with a bow and am trying to build up my alchemy skill so I don't have to rely too much on vendors.One thing I've noticed on this difficulty as opposed to when my friends play it on lower diff is that you really run through those potions and food very fast. There is no lolligagging around with an inventory full of potions you never use.

I take whatever edge I can get be it making my own potions and making meals out of raw foodstuff.I've taken to favoring all my useful potions for when I'm in battle, also the Histskin power that argonians have is a real blessing.

I've been playing on Master from level 1 - this is my second playthrough, I wanted to have a challenge after playing on Adept. I play as an archer and it's really not that hard, but if you want to play as a 2 handed warrior or something like that, you'll have a really hard time in the beginning. Draugrs can kill you in one hit and you hardly make a dent in them.During the first levels don't even try fighting dragons. When you see them, run. I also recommend getting a follower immediately at the beginning of the game (I used Faendal at first, then Lydia and then Vilkas). It is a must have on Master since enemies will start beating them instead of you. Give them good equipment, not the basic Wolf or Steel Armor or whatever. Also try to think of creative ways of killing enemies: if they have animals in cages, open the cage and the animal will attack them and it'll make your job easier since they might even kill each other, lure the draugrs into traps, etc. And also get ready to run from enemies - a lot. But it gets a lot easier after a while.

I've been playing on Master from level 1 - this is my second playthrough, I wanted to have a challenge after playing on Adept. I play as an archer and it's really not that hard.

Also try to think of creative ways of killing enemies: if they have animals in cages, open the cage and the animal will attack them and it'll make your job easier since they might even kill each other, lure the draugrs into traps, etc.

And also get ready to run from enemies - a lot. But it gets a lot easier after a while.

The kind of tactics that I would use as well on Master. The Bow being the best weapon of choice, coupled with Sprint, and having a high Stamina for sprinting a long time. All my early 10 level-up points went into Stamina, it's a great survivor. Tactical play and making use of traps leading enemies into them, a lot of hit-and-run as well. Some players even use low equipment and rarely take followers.

I play on master, its hard, but it gets a little easier when you get your defence and combat skills up. I wouldnt recommend using exploits that aren't related to your character. Such as, powerleveling alteration using telekinesis, when you are a warrior. Mages are still a pain though. Im starting a paladin here soon, playing only on master!

Eh just started playing Skyrim about a week and a half ago. Started it on Master, originally I set out to be your A-typical swordsman (heavy armor, 1-Hand, etc.) But quickly found out that I died a lot either in 1v1's or 1v2-5's. xD So while I continued to hone my heavy armor, block, etc. I picked up Archery, Restoration, Sneak, Conjuration and Destruction.

Really though the early levels are the hardest because everything can see you no matter what, so you have to rely on terrain exploits (ie: Getting to places melee's can't, and finding nooks and crannies to hide behind from archers/spell casters) and A LOT of kiting. I don't use blacksmithing, enchanting or even alchemy, potions largely go unused aswell.

The downfall of all this though is that I only have about 50 points of carrying ability at any given time since I keep a full set of Heavy Armor and Light Armor and a few odds and ends for special enchantment bonuses. Really at the end of day (being level 41 and only having Sneak mastered) my character is a jack of all trades. If the situation calls for it I sit there and burn down my opponents from a terrain exploit, if they close the distance somehow I quickly swap on my heavy armor gear and shield but more often then not I snipe people from a distance and just kite them indefinitely until they drop dead or get a quick 30x attack with my dagger.

Once you get sneak mastered though the game instantly becomes a breeze and honestly after level 20, )(provided you've done the right quests and kept up-to-date on your shouts) the games difficulty drops off tremendously. Not that things don't or can't one shot you, because they can, but through proper micro-management you can over come nearly every single situation.

For instance I remember in one dungeon when I was level 10 or so, in Valthrune I think it was, there was this lever that when you pulled it opened up a gate to the side that was just a little cubby. Thinking that odd I went into the next room and lo and behold there was a Druegr (one up from the restless forget what they're called but they summon frost atronachs) no way in hell could I take them on, so I lured them into the room force-shouted them into the cubby and quickly pulled the lever which allowed me to afk-spam destruction spells on them and slowly, very slowly might I add whittle them down to their demise.

Edit: Oh and one final thing, do NOT, DO NOT get the "light foot" mastery in the sneak tree (the one that lets you not trigger pressure plate traps) until you are level 30+. I can't tell you how many times I would kite back and forth using restoration and shouts and killed restless druegr and more powerful druegr using traps.

For talent trees, maxing out Archery should be first, putting points only in improved heavy armor, increasing the defensive capabilities of block (until you get the 50% damage reduc from spells when block), getting dual casting resto and maxing out the sneak tree is how you should go. Which skill in order is something I couldn't really tell you as I kinda picked things up as they came. Becoming a vampire is also highly recommended because if you encounter a druegr priest they will use primarily frost based attacks against you, so as long as you're saving properly you can wait 4 days and get 100% resistance to frost. If against Fire spells, well make sure to not be past the first day of being a vampire as often as possible. Or just pick up fire resist gear and resto-wards like me. ^.^

Oh and my first character was an Imperial so LOL no good defensive stats.

Edit 2: Finishing Dark Brotherhood questline first is highly recommended (though you will need at least a 70+ in sneak) because you get Shadowmere, a Dark Brotherhood Initiate neither of which can die (Shadowmere can if you run her off a cliff, but otherwise in fights she never dies) aswell as a Spectral Assassin and these can tank hostiles for you which is immensely needed especially since they can tank dragons too. Picking up Conjuration and a Flame Atronarch for the ~extra damage thanks to their fire damage and you suddenly have 4 minions tanking and doing damage for you.

I feel skyrim is a game that is leveled based on from beginning to end. So most have to start at a lower difficulty in order to build the character up to attempt it at a higher difficulty. Obviously, some people are really good at games and tactics and so they can begin on Master or Legendary and it will work out. For me, I start on Adept, maybe the random fistfight to get a follower I might turn it down to novice, but when I get to about level 20 I up it to Expert and from there, I may pick master, I may not. I feel like playing as an archer thief is easier because of the sneak element. Playing as a warrior 2H is hardest I feel, 1H w/shield is better. Dual swords annoy me, mostly because when i am panicking in a fight I tend to accidentally hit the sneak button. But I'm working on that with my thief/assasin in case the enemy manages to run through the 10 glass arrows I just impaled them with.

For the novice gamer and person who just wants to screw around, play on whatever level you like. I only up the difficulty because I'm trucking around and I have like 40 health potions that haven't been used. I don't even bother with food, weighs too much.

I feel skyrim is a game that is leveled based on from beginning to end. So most have to start at a lower difficulty in order to build the character up to attempt it at a higher difficulty. Obviously, some people are really good at games and tactics and so they can begin on Master or Legendary and it will work out. For me, I start on Adept, maybe the random fistfight to get a follower I might turn it down to novice, but when I get to about level 20 I up it to Expert and from there, I may pick master, I may not. I feel like playing as an archer thief is easier because of the sneak element. Playing as a warrior 2H is hardest I feel, 1H w/shield is better. Dual swords annoy me, mostly because when i am panicking in a fight I tend to accidentally hit the sneak button. But I'm working on that with my thief/assasin in case the enemy manages to run through the 10 glass arrows I just impaled them with.

For the novice gamer and person who just wants to screw around, play on whatever level you like. I only up the difficulty because I'm trucking around and I have like 40 health potions that haven't been used. I don't even bother with food, weighs too much.

That works and I did that before in Oblivion and Morrowind, but I really wanted to test myself when Skyrim came out and see just how hard it truly was when I had no prior game knowledge of exploits (whether terrain, quest or otherwise).